Lost U-boat Fleet Discovered
Three scuttled U-boats with a unique history have been discovered in the Black Sea off the Turkish coast. Tentatively identified as the Type IIB subs U-19, U-20, and U-23, they could prove a treasure trove to historians because they probably sustained only minor damage in their sinking.
The trio was half of the German 30th Flotilla, which was moved 2,000 miles overland—by river when possible and roadway when not—from the Baltic port of Kiel, Germany, to Constanta, Romania. From 1942 to August 1944 the flotilla wreaked havoc on Soviet shipping, losing three subs in the process. When Romania switched allegiance and declared war on Germany, the remaining three were stranded. With no base and no route home (the Bosporus and Dardanelles were closed to them by Turkey's neutrality), they were ordered scuttled out of the sight of the Turks.
A team led by Selçuk Kolay, a Turkish marine engineer, established the boats' positions through research in German archives, interviews with surviving sailors, and sonar studies of the seabed. He has completed successful dives to the wreckage of U-20 two miles offshore at a depth of about 80 feet. He believes he has located U-23, about 150 feet down, three miles from the town of Agva, and is certain the third boat, U-19, lies more than 1,000 feet down, three miles from Zonguldak. Kolay was aided by a map drawn by Rudolf Arendt, 85, the former captain of U-23, showing where his crew came ashore.
All three U-boats had earlier operated against British shipping in the North Sea. U-23, commanded by Otto Kretschmer who became the most successful U-boat ace, gained notoriety for scoring one of Germany's earliest successes, sinking a British ship off the Shetland Islands barely one month after war began.
From Spars to Missiles
On 9 August 2008 at Baltimore's South Locust Point Marine Terminal, the new Arleigh Burke–class destroyer Sterett (DDG-104) will be commissioned. The event will be a special mix of the old sailing navy of masts, spars, and broadside guns and the new navy of gas turbines, missiles, and Aegis fleet air-defense weapon systems.
Baltimore was chosen to host the commissioning ceremony because of the link between the ship's namesake, Lieutenant Andrew Sterett, and the city. As the 20-year-old son of a noted ship's captain and merchant in the port, he applied for a lieutenant's position in the new 36-gun sailing frigate USS Constellation after her launch in 1797. He was accepted early in 1798 and served as 3rd lieutenant when the Constellation fought and captured the French frigate L'Insurgente in 1799 during the Quasi-War with France.
Sterett soon became the Constellation's 1st lieutenant (executive officer) and was later given command of the 12-gun schooner USS Enterprise, which in 1801 defeated a Tripolitan warship. For this action Sterett was warmly commended by the U.S. government. He left the Navy in 1805 and died two years later.
Three earlier Navy warships have been named for Lieutenant Sterett. During the new Sterett's commissioning ceremony, plans are to have the sail sloop of war USS Constellation, a museum ship in Baltimore, berthed with the destroyer. This ship, launched in 1854, is the successor to the 1797 frigate of the same name—the ship that young Sterett knew. The sloop Constellation will be a demonstrable historic and traditional link between the ships of the old Navy and the modern Fleet.
—John D. Barnard
Jacksonville Supports Museum Ship
On 26 February 2008, the city council of Jacksonville, Florida, unanimously passed a resolution supporting the establishment of the ex-USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2) as a naval ship museum in the city. Several years ago the Adams Class Veterans Association (ACVA) began the effort to save the lead ship of a class of 23 guided-missile destroyers built by the Navy in the 1960s. A German museum ship is the only other DDG-2–class ship in existence.
The ship's former commanding officer, retired Navy Captain Bob Branco, noted, "It's appropriate to bring the ship back home to Jacksonville where she was homeported for the last 23 years of her service."
The Adams is not yet safe. The Navy has to accept the ACVA's nearly 1,000-page Ship Donation Application which must be matched by a successful fund-raising effort of $7 million to bring her to museum-ready status. Initial estimates suggest the Adams will be dedicated as the Jacksonville Historical Naval Ship Museum in mid-2010. Museum plans include memorials to all 23 ships in the class.
Additional information about the effort to establish the Adams as a museum ship in Jacksonville is at www.adamsclassddgvets.org.
Naval History for the Birds
A little piece of arcane naval history—a concrete birdbath—has been rescued and preserved in Pearl Harbor. During an informal ceremony on 21 March, Seabees from the Pearl Harbor–based Construction Battalion Maintenance Unit 303 received thanks from Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet. The event's location was the backyard of 37 Makalapa Drive just doors down from the admiral's headquarters. The Seabees had relocated a birdbath built for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, and refurbished a garden. Nimitz resided there at the "Nimitz House" from December 1941 to November 1945.
The birdbath, now in place in the house's north yard, was originally located at Quarters 1 on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay, California. Nimitz enjoyed gardening and nature, and erected the birdbath in the yard of his residence there, also known as the Nimitz House, sometime after 1964 and before his death on 20 February 1966. The Department of Defense closed the Yerba Buena Island Naval Training Station in 1993.
During a visit to the island in early February 2007, Captain Scott Gureck, Pacific Fleet public affairs officer, rediscovered the birdbath sitting exactly where he had last seen it as a high school student nearly 30 years earlier. Gureck set out to save the birdbath, believing that the relic should be moved to the Pearl Harbor Nimitz House. Thus, a plan was launched that became affectionately known around the Pacific Fleet headquarters as "Operation Birdbath."
"Fleet Admiral Nimitz loved nature. He maintained a thriving garden at his home at Yerba Buena," said Gureck. "Therefore, it's fitting, considering our Navy's commitment to the environment, that we would bring the bird bath to the Nimitz House at Pearl Harbor—both for our feathered friends and for generations to come."
The Hawaii Nimitz House, built in 1941 just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, is one of 18 flag quarters on Oahu maintained by the Navy for its admirals and Marine Corps generals.
Royal Navy Wreck Found
The remains of the World War II Royal Navy destroyer HMS Hunter have been discovered 1,000 feet under the icy waters of a Norwegian fjord. The 2,070-ton Hunter was sunk by German naval forces on 10 April 1940 during the first Battle of Narvik, losing 110 of her 145 crew members. She remained undiscovered and undisturbed until the Royal Norwegian Navy minehunter HNOMS Tyr located her in late February.
The Tyr was participating in Exercise Armatura Borealis with ships from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and Germany when she discovered the sunken vessel with her echo sounder. She positively identified the wreck as the long-lost Hunter with her remotely operated submersible.
The presence of the commander of the United Kingdom's amphibious force, Major General Garry Robison, and other Royal Navy ships participating in the exercise allowed appropriate respect to be paid in a ceremony over the site. General Robison noted that "Finding HMS Hunter was a poignant moment and being able to pay our respects along with our Norwegian and Dutch allies is particularly fitting to those who lost their lives."
The senior spokesperson for the Norwegian National Joint Headquarters, Colonel John Øglænd, said: "Being able to host this large multinational exercise is great for us but to find HMS Hunter whilst doing so makes it very special indeed. We remain close allies and are eternally grateful to those who helped preserve our freedom."
The Germans lost four destroyers during the first Battle of Narvik, while the Allies lost HMS Hunter and HMS Hardy.
Fitting Ceremony for Navy Legend
Cremated remains of legendary submarine skipper Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey were buried at sea from the nuclear attack submarine USS Pasadena (SSN-752) on 24 January 2008 in the South China Sea.
Fluckey, known as the "Galloping Ghost of the China Coast" during World War II, earned the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses during five hazardous patrols in command of the USS Barb (SS-220). He sank more tonnage than any other American warship captain—submarine, aircraft carrier, cruiser, or destroyer. He also revolutionized how submarines could be used in wartime by firing what he called "ballistic missiles" at enemy targets, landing saboteurs on mainland Japan to blow up trains, and improvising unusual hit-and-run tactics.
Among his many achievements, the Barb's rescue of 14 Australian and British prisoners of war adrift on the South China Sea on 17 September 1944 remains the most poignant. Forced to build a railroad across Malaysia, the POWs were near death after the Japanese transport taking them to Japan sank. From 450 miles away, the Barb was one of the few submarines close enough to attempt a rescue. She succeeded through brilliant seamanship in the midst of a typhoon. Crewmen took turns diving into the ocean to bring survivors aboard, then nursed them back to health. Fluckey later described seeing them off in Saipan:
Stretcher bearers went below and brought the last two up. Each one insisted on stopping and clasping my hand as he passed by. Big tears rolled down their faces. I choked up. People all around were looking at me. Hell, a captain is not supposed to be emotional, so I headed for the bridge.
After the admiral's death on 28 June 2007, Fluckey's ashes were entombed at the Naval Academy. His widow, Margaret, asked that a portion be taken to 20 degrees North longitude, 115 degrees East latitude—where the Barb found and saved the POWs.
On 31 October, the remains were taken aboard the Pasadena being deployed from Naval Station Pearl Harbor to the western Pacific under Commander Douglas Perry. The burial at sea took place nearly three months later at the designated coordinates.
—Carl LaVO
The Naval Order's D-Day
Three years ago, members of the Naval Order of the United States—a 118-year-old organization dedicated to commemorate the past while preparing for the future—realized something needed to be done in Normandy. Although one of every five American fatalities during the landings there on 6-9 June 1944 was a U.S. Navy Sailor, those 1,068 Sailors—including their Coast Guard brothers-in-arms—killed and wounded during the storming of Fortress Europe remain without proper tribute on the beaches. All other U.S. armed services and those of our Allies that participated in this epic amphibious invasion are deservedly memorialized at Normandy. But not the Navy. The Order decided to correct this omission.
(The U.S. Coast Guard was transferred to the Navy Department by executive order on 1 November 1941. Accordingly, their losses at Normandy are included in the total of the Navy's fatalities there. A plaque at Utah Beach already memorializes their valor and sacrifice.)
Under the leadership of project chairman retired Navy Captain Greg Streeter, the Naval Order's all-volunteer Monument Project task groups raised the private funds necessary to complete a 12-foot bronze monument that will be dedicated on 27 September on a site donated by the French at Utah Beach. So far, private donations have accounted for 90 percent of the total $500,000 goal.
Streeter emphasized that the Naval Order is still requesting donations to complete the unfinished business of honoring our Navy's World War II sacrifices. The order's volunteers generate publicity, prospects, and raise funds instead of using professionals or paid consultants. Thus, about 99 percent of each donation to the Naval Order of the United States Foundation, an IRS Code Section 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, goes directly to the manufacture of the monument, transport to its Utah Beach site, and its dedication. Readers who wish to honor our Navy at Normandy with a tax-deductible donation can make checks payable to the Naval Order of the United States Foundation. Please write "Normandy Monument" on the memo line. Donations should be mailed to Naval Order of the U.S. Foundation, P.O. Box 583, Glenview, IL 60025-0583. Please ensure your address is included so that your donation can be fully documented and properly acknowledged.
—William Dudley
Americans at War'Matt Dillon' at AnzioJim Wise visits us regularly, consulting with the magazine editors on stories he's heard that might make a good article or a subject for our television project, Americans at War, and overseeing progress on his books with the Naval Institute Press. Suddenly, a German machine gunner opened fire, shattering Arness' lower right leg. At this point, the rest of the platoon fired back, with Arness ducking the crossfire zinging over him "only 18 inches off the ground," he said. He was eventually treated and carried behind the lines, with "the million-dollar wound—bad enough to send you home, but not bad enough to kill you." For Arness, the experience was humbling. "You really begin to appreciate what this country is. . . . It's something that stays with you the rest of your life. The experience is riding with you." Matt Dillon did a lot of riding with that experience. Stay tuned for his story. |